Daily Archives: February 8, 2017

ABRAHAM

Archeology shows that Ur was as advanced a city as there was in the ancient world. It had a sewage-waste disposal system, multiple story housing, large streets, its women wore wigs and had compacts, its children went to schools, they had libraries and many of the inhabitants there were wealthy. On the darker side, they also worshiped various false gods. Terah, Abraham’s own father, apparently worshiped other gods (Josh. 24:2) and, if you can trust Jewish tradition, was a maker of these idols. This was the environment from which Abraham came.

Abraham was called by God to leave his home and go to a land that He would show him, the promised land (Gen. 12:1,2; Acts 7:1-4). It must have taken great faith for Abraham to venture on this journey, leave the land of his nativity, and all his kindred and his father’s house to travel to a foreign land, a destination as yet unknown (Heb. 11:8). Paul said he embarked on this journey because, in part, he sought a city which had foundations whose builder and maker was God (Heb. 11:9).

Though we cannot know the whole story, it is, perhaps, a testimony to Abraham’s faith and trustworthiness, that his father also left those environs. Terah was well advanced in age at this time and the travel would have taken its toll on such a man. In fact, he did not complete the journey but died in Haran (Gen. 11:2). But I like to think–though I have no proof–that maybe Terah gave up his false gods and worshiped Jehovah in the end through Abraham’s influence.

Abraham stands out in Biblical history as the seminal figure of the Jews. The Jews would say, “Abraham is our father” (John 8:39). They would ask Jesus, “Art Thou greater than our father Abraham?” (John 8:53). Even though Abraham was a great man, and even though he was the father of his people, John the baptizer noted that trusting in their Abrahamic descent was foolish for “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Matthew 3:9). It wasn’t Abraham’s genes that made him great and being his descendants did not provide an automatic entrance into heaven.

The one thing that stands out about Abraham and is noted by inspired, Biblical authors is his faith. When God promised him that one that would proceed out of his own bowels would be his heir, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness (Gen. 15:1-6). Twice this passage is quoted by Paul to show that salvation does not come from keeping the works of the Law of Moses–Abraham preceded the law by 430 years (Gal. 3:17)–and it is quoted by James to show that faith without works is dead (Rom. 4:3; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23).

Abraham believed God, but he wasn’t the first or the last to do so. What, then, makes his faith so notable? First, he is the one to whom the seed promise was first made (cf. Is. 51:2 – Eve was given a seed promise but it was her transgression that precipitated it – Gen. 3:15). Second, Abraham’s obedience earned him the appellation the “friend of God” (II Chron.20:7; Is. 41:8). It is said that the Lord spoke to Abraham as one speaks to a friend (Ex. 33:11). Third, “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness” (Romans 4:20-22). Fourth, it was in Abraham’s seed that all the nations of the earth were to be blessed (Gen. 12:1,2).

While the Jews trusted in their fleshly descent from Abraham, it was never God’s intention to make that the determining factor in reconciling man back to Himself. Paul noted that, under the New Covenant, a person was not a Jew which was one outwardly, but he was a Jew which had received the circumcision of the heart (Rom. 2:28,29). This is a circumcision made without hands, “in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God” (Col. 2:12). Today, the Lord’s church is spiritual Israel (Gal. 6:15,16).

Abraham was the friend of God because he believed and obeyed the will of God (James 2:21-24). Today, through Jesus Christ, we can be called the friends of God when we obey the Lord’s commands (John 15:14, 15). “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Galatians 3:6-9).

“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul” (Hebrews 10:35-39).

Eric L. Padgett